Les Amis, Singapore

The gang's favourite joint for lunch these days. So we decided to bunk in there on a hot humid Saturday afternoon for the usual 4 hours lunch. The lunch menu here is quite interesting with a huge selection from entree to main and desserts, but the main list has got to be its wine list :))))

J&J Jelina is one proud momma for her daughter recently achieved the outstanding leadership awards. I wondered what did daddy open for this happy celebration :))) I've watched friends' kids grow from lil one to beautiful young lady. Oh gawd...that reminds me I'm getting really old here. Has it been ten years? yeah looking back, 10 years is quite a steep grow for children from 5 to 15....but I still think me look the same from 25 to 35 hehehehehehe. Agree?

Crusty bread baked straight from its kitchen and yummylicious butter.....we've been reminding ourselves not to over indulge not to nibble one more piece...but it's too good to resist....damn!! put it far far away from us~~~~

this was how someone hid his bread......away from his sights but yet there's still a stash of it there means u will still consume it later!!!

special order for the toddler, Homemade sausage capellini in sweet tomato sauce. JS was eyeing this bowl of pasta...

"Hey it's for the kiddo!!! u will have yours soon."
JS :-(((((

steamed seasonal white asparagus with a special hollandaise sauce. Squeeze some japanese lime and dress the dish with japanese herbaceous flowers. It somehow elevate the dish for our palate are so attuned to asian ingredients.

we are lucky chaps to be enjoying the white asparagus with a bottle from Guigal :))) That just brought back memories of our visit to the Rhone Valley last autumn. 

I think this was a kiddo salad too. 

Amuse bouche with such generous toppings of caviar and silver leaf?? We usually have gold leaves but silver is new....or was it lightings that caused the gold leaf to turned silver? hahahaha me.don't.know.

mixed selections of grilled earthy mushrooms, with its mouse and gratin at the bottom. Some shaved cheese and spices on the side. Lookin from the menu, I know we are almost turning to be vegan hahahaha. As u get older and pass the age of 35, u need to take care of that one and only engine of yours...which will have to function in proper order for the rest of your life. 

very interesting white from the cold mountain of Jura. The only time I've been to the Jura mountain was to visit the watch factory of my previous company. Then I had the most beautiful white and red wines...which never make it out of Switzerland because the production is so little. This bottle is from the region in France bordering Switzerland. 

Les Amis has got such beautiful tableware. It was also Les Amis that introduced us to Laguoile knives 9 years ago....now JS has got a collection enuff to open a shop.

Thing about men vs women.
Women buy stuffs to USE
Men buy stuffs to KEEP/display/admire

Special for the day, roast French chicken with new potatoes. The team at Les Amis insisted that we must try this, which wasn't in the menu.

It's quite a lean chicken u know, look at its sexay legs!!!! hmmmm reminded me of myself on the pole. BAHAHAHAHAHA

Nope, I did not get inspired from Les Amis's roast french chicken. There's really such pole trick and it's called the Handstand Butterfly. Very happy that I've achieved something small in my pole fitness for I couldn't execute the body invert, turn it around to crucifix before landing with a handstand like this. It took me 3 months, whereby my classmates learnt it in 3 minutes!!!! The fear for heights and being inverted is too difficult for me to conquer and last Sunday I fell down terribly again from the top.

both instructor and JS told me to use a crashing mat at the bottom but my philosophy was....if I knew there's always a crashing mat at the bottom I will never learn, for there's something to catch me at the end. So the best way to train this Monkey is not to have anything, once she has tasted the pain of crashing down all the time, she will do all it takes to hold on, even if it means bruises all over her chicken legs. Hahahaha yes chicken legs and thighs.

It's been roasted this way, standing inverted on a special cast iron roaster. The fats at the bottom were used to roast the new potatoes. Surprisingly the fragrant of the roast chicken was quite mild as opposed to Poulet de Bresse. It was on the dry side for us. Maybe the chicken was too lean...hehehehe.

For those who doesn't consume chicken....oh well in this case, the one and only Mr. JS....he ordered his favourite japanese shrimp pasta. He's one eppy boy when there's certain form of carbs esp pasta....he grew up eating bread and pasta so those are his comfort food. *apart from wines*

mix and toss it to enjoy!!! The texture of the capellini is seriously good here. :)))

Gimme gimme gimme my chicken!!!!
It was carved and presented really nice. Just that we didn't snap a pic of it bcoz the photographer was too bz and he was nowhere to be seen. 

our dearie photographer was bz visiting Les Amis's wine cellar...or should I call it the treasure trove?? all the amazing rare and outstanding wines.....in big formats!!!

We do have our own gems to drink as well :))) hehehehehe I know, I'm such a lucky and privileged monkey!!!

D is for desserts!!!!!

instead of sweets, I went for the cheeses. Les Amis source really awesome cheeses and if you would like to purchase all these artisanal fromage, it's really possible.

petit four for coffee...and it was at the moment I quickly surrender my credit card and to further dramatize it, I told the Maitre'D that it's my birthday and I AM BUYING lunch for my beloved friends!!!!! but lil did I know, Les Amis was even more drama.

I got a birthday cake
-_-"
moral of the story is, kids....never ever tell white lies ok?

Not only my card got rejected here bcoz apparently they only accept Singaporean credit cards. Oh yeah right....they gave me a cake....since we were so full, we packed it back for dinner and it was amazingly yummy!!! Thank you to chef de patisserie. 

and Mr. JS went missing again, snoopping around in the kitchen. Chef de patisserie Cheryl Koh was bz but kind enuff to pose for a pic.

Thank you my dear Singapore Minum Gang for lunch and dinner and everything else. Always awesome to spend the weekend with u guys.

Les Amis is now open on Sunday. Do check out their website for more info.

Les Amis
1 Scotts Road,
#01-16 Shaw Centre,
Singapore 228208.
Tel: +65 6733 2225
www.lesamis.com.sg

The Men Cooked up a storm in Singapore

Claypot Crab Rice, all made from scratch

If a pic taken with an iPhone could be so stunning, the real dish is even more awesome. Agree? So it was one of those weekends where we would bump ourselves to Singapore just for catch-up session. Session of food and wine indulgence, sometimes it has to be done quietly......shhhhhh....stealth mode into the country and quietly out. But these days with social media, u can hide no more unless u decided not to post nor share any pics.

another stunning dish of fresh frog legs wok fried with "hor" or kuey teow or in english, it's known as flat rice noodles. Kowfuu made sure there's plenty of "breathe of fire" on this dish. Usually beans sprouts are used to introduce the smokiness into the dish by frying it first on the wok to release the aroma, then u throw away the beans sprouts before actually frying the ingredients and adding more fresh beans sprouts.

According to the Men, this is wat the Char Kuey Teow guy does too. This technique is to release the smokiness and intensify the breathe of fire. JS and Kowfuu does a lot of analysis and discussion when it comes to cooking....from techniques to suppliers, to ingredients and methodology. It could be one single step that makes a whole world of difference.

But I was too bz slurping down my frog legs hor.....the smoky flavours and the fresh sweetness of its muscles. Definitely better than fish and chicken hahahhahaa, that's wat I usually tell the kids when they refused any frog legs. By far the most orgasmic frog legs I had were there ginger fried frog legs at Jade Palace Singapore and the home cooked ones by Chef Takashi Kimura. 

Have a look at the Jade Palace's orgasmic fried frog legs *here*

JS cooked a huge pan of prawns pasta with oil rendered from the prawns heads and shells. I guess the men were trying to save some plates and dishes by serving it directly from the pan. While the poor maid was still busy scrubbing and washing ever since they started cooking.

I didn't snap pics of most dishes, must be overly happy bcoz we were drinking since 12pm. Weeeee areeee the champions my friends.......and weeeeeee'll keep on drinking till the endddddd. Okie correction...Monkey always promote drinking responsibly...so always consume alcohols in moderations and do not handle machineries nor drink and drive!!!

So I resorted to drinking daikon soups and ended having 3 bowls. So yumssss, slow boiled with amazing ingredients inside. Okie u won't wanna know, it's basically all the good stuffs. :)))))))

The Men kept on churning food outta the kitchen while the really blessed and honored guests were bz chomping and nom-ing down every single plates/bowls and glasses of champagnes and wines.

Take a closer look on this claypot crab rice...the roe were still creamie, there's triple fermented soya sauce being used, some grand cru fish sauce from Vietname, fried garlic, freshly chopped spring onions. anchovies from Spain, caramelised shallots...definitely full of umami. Now who's hungry? and the grains were fluffy and fat from Spain too.

With all the superior ingredients made to pair and complement each other, this pot of rice was really a bomb in terms of flavours. Kowfuu not too happy about the texture, he said he's gonna try again.

while doing lunch, Boo_licious  mentioned that these tarts down the road were to die for....and bcoz we were so full to the brim from lunch, we decided to pack some of the tarts back. Sadly at around 4pm after our lunch *ahem yea it was a long 4 hours lunch* there were only a few options left.

 

So we packed back strawberries, lemon curd, berries, caramelised nuts and some eclairs back. Really really yummy especially the pastries.

The single odd one out was the chocolate cake - packed back from lunch at Les Amis. In order to get privilege to settle the bill, I told the Maitre'D that it's my bday and I'm buying lunch for my dearie friends.....somehow my credit card got rejected by the restaurant, bcoz the rule there is the person making the reservation gets to pay.

While J&J James told me that So Sorry, Singapore will never ever accept ur credit card. It doesn't work here. Haha very farnie. We never ever get to pay for our friends here......thank you so much for ur hospitality guys!!!

And bcoz i told a lil lie....or rather quite a big one...the restaurant wheel out my mini "birthday" cake with a song. *wham head onto table* all decorated with berries and gold leaf. So kids, never ever tell lies, there's consequences~~~~~ BOO!!!!

Mini Infinity dark chocolate ice creams!!!! so so good~~~~~
and after a few days of extreme indulgence......we flew back to Malaysia with really really contented tummies and happiness thanks to the amazing company of our dearie friends.

and bcoz Monkey was raving on and on and on about the Claypot Crab Rice.....JS cooked his version for me. Combination of Kowfuu's technique and the special avocado curry sauce from Chef Takashi Kimura.

What surprised me was the curry sauce tasted exactly the same!!!
"He gave u the recipe?"
JS: "Nope, I de-constructed it based on taste and memory."

Ok confirmed la, Chef Takashi will never ever share with u what's inside in the future. U copy cat!!!! kekekeke but it was an extreme good copy with amazing efforts to construct something out of ur taste memory.

Kowfuu was also amazed that JS combined the best of both world to make one single dish. Hahahaha...u damn can la Mr. JS. If u guys are wondering and would love to have recipes, these guys alwiz cooked without one. Depending on request, sometimes they have to re-draft something for my readers out of their memories. I can't cook without recipes. Even with recipes it doesn't taste the same, bcoz according to JS, recipe is just the beginning....it's all about technicality, timing and ingredients. Okie lor....u win liao lor...

Back from trips

Stunning impromptu photo taken by Mr. JS :))))

We were passing by the harbour and AquaLuna was just round the corner picking up some guests. JS quickly clicked his shutters and he got such stunning results. When will I ever be able to emulate his nonchalant-ness. I guess you can't have it, u need to own certain qualities in life.

It has been really productive short trips, from Singapore for work and then off to Hong Kong for the weekend. Has been quite a beautiful journey for me, *the work trip* and I came back feeling even more passionate bout my job. Guess it's no longer a job, it's not even passion...I am infatuated by it.

Oh gawd, it's only my 3rd month.....I eat, drink, breathe, sleep and even dream about my career. And can never ever stop talking about it....but best of all, JS entertained all my deep talks and discussions. He's the best :)))) thank you and u will alwiz be number 1 in my life.  :)))

Trip to Hong Kong was also an impromptu one, with not many places left to visit that is within 3-4 hours flight max from Msia, that has got culture and good food and also with less tourists on Wesak day hence Thailand was already out of question. Due to the recent anti-Hong Kong and anti-China protests among these two, guess who visits Hong Kong now??? It's the Kimchi Koreans!!!! So we saw many beautiful reconstructed porcelain-skinned human beings walking around with selfie-sticks in the island. We should have photograph these beautiful human beings but was more bz indulging on the food instead. Hehehehee.

Have you been on Aqualuna? If you have not, it would be quite an experience though it's may been touristy for some of you :))

Check out the posting of our lil cruise back in 2010 *click here*
How time flies :))) so pls do have some patience, as we are busy sorting out more photos from our recent trips for future postings...also bz sorting out work :))) But both are alwiz with pleasure never pressure. That should be the way of life :))))

Have a amazing week there everyone :)))

Bak Chor Mee aka Mee Pok

the distinctive and special Bak Chor Mee....or famously known as Mee Pok.

Once can only find these in Singapore I suppose. A teochew speciality, its name Bak Chor Mee means minced/sliced pork noodle. Then wat about Mee Pok? so confusing....anyway Mee Pok is the general term for this teochew noodle which is then divided into Bak Chor Mee and Fish Ball mee pok. So these two siblings have 2 different school of thought concentrating either on pork or fish. It's a good arrangement, so no rivalries. Hahahaha u think so?

Next under bak chor mee, there is the mee kia - thin and flat noodle and the normal noodle. And also there's dry and soup version. Wow ordering a bowl ain't easy huh?

But we lurve it for its spiciness from the chilli oil, acid from its vinegar, richness from its meat and lards and finally the al-denteness of the noodle. It required a lot of technique and skills to prepare and cook the noodle to this texture of chewniness.

The famous bak chor mee that we lurve is Tai Wah for it's the most original one....but if u have no choice nor time and needed a quick fix around ya, just head to the one at ION Food Opera or the very last option would be the mini food court upstairs of Terminal 2 in Changi Airport. In fact there's so many other options and everyone gave me their different bak chor mee around the corner. Shows that this is one and truly a Singaporean comfort food :)))

Do you have one to share with me? :))